3perspective- taking. Theoretically, practitioners who are more aware of their own
internal processes, life challenges, and personal strengths and limitations are better
able to relate to those of their patients (Joireman et al. 2002 ). Self-reflection helps
students acquire self-supervisory skills; create a conceptual map of the helping pro-
cess (Bennett-Levy 2007 ); and develop cultural competency, as deep self-knowl-
edge is considered an essential component of culturally competent practice. Ridley
et al. ( 2011 ) cite several counseling/psychotherapy studies demonstrating that
“Continuous self-reflection and self-awareness ... are critical to quality therapeutic
relationships and professional development” (p. 829). Evidence from the genetic
counseling literature supports the necessity of self-reflection in genetic counselor
professional development (e.g., Callanan and Redlinger-Grosse 2016 ; Miranda
et al. 2016 ; Wells et al. 2016 ; Zahm et al. 2016 ).
1.1.2 General Principles for Maximizing Learning
The type of skills learning approach recommended in this book is quite novel for
many students. As such, we find it helpful to set the stage for learning by sharing
several principles with them:
- It is more important to know what the questions are than to feel confident you
have all the answers. Questions demonstrate your critical thinking, willingness to
seek consultation, and desire to find answers. Development of “self-supervision”
skills is essential. As a professional, you must be able to critically evaluate and
then modify your performance as necessary. - You will be immersed in an ethos of feedback. Every feedback interaction should
involve positive and corrective feedback, and you should strive to be open and
willing to give and receive feedback in a respectful manner. - We expect you to be open and willing to share personal reflections regarding
your development as a genetic counselor. - We encourage you to try on for size the various basic skills presented.
- We ask you to make efforts to become comfortable in the genetic counselor
chair—sitting across from patients you do not know and engaging in interactions
that are unpredictable. - We encourage you to spend more time focusing on the patient(s), rather than on
yourself. - You should work to become proactive and strategic rather than reactive during
counseling interchanges. - We want you to try to speculate about what lies beneath the surface of genetic
counseling interactions. Refrain from automatically taking either patient behav-
iors or your own actions and reactions at face value. - We expect you to realize that at all times, you are held to a higher standard as a
professional and to behave accordingly.
1.1 Philosophical Underpinnings and General Learning Objectives